title: "There is still so much ahead of us"-family functioning in families of palliative cancer patients.
abstract: Adopting a systems approach, parental cancer has its impact on patients, spouses, and dependent children. The purpose of the current study was to examine family functioning dependent on parental disease stage and on family member perspective in families of cancer patients with adolescent children. The cross-sectional study was conducted within a German multisite research project of families before their first child-centered counseling encounter. The sample comprised individuals nested within N = 169 families. Analyses performed included analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and intraclass correlation. Open answers were analyzed following quantitative content analysis procedures. Between 15% and 36% of family members reported dysfunctional general functioning scores. Parents indicated more dysfunctional scores on the Family Assessment Device scale Roles, and adolescents more dysfunctional Communication scores. Regarding assessment of family functioning, there was higher agreement in families with parents in a palliative situation. For adolescents with parents in palliation, incidents because of the disease tend to become more dominant, and spending time with the family tends to become even more important. As our study pointed out, parental cancer, and especially parental palliative disease, is associated with both perceived critical and positive aspects in family functioning. Supporting families in these concerns as well as encouraging perceptions of positive aspects are important components of psycho-oncological interventions for families with dependent children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.
authors.forename: Franziska
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kühne
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Krattenmacher
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Psychology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.
authors.forename: Corinna
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1413-1872
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bergelt
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Psychology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Beierlein
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic and General Clinical Medicine, University Medical Centre.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Herzog
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, University Medical Centre.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: V Klitzing
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, Charite University Medical Centre.
authors.forename: Heike
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Weschenfelder-Stachwitz
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Romer
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Möller
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms; D010166:Palliative Care; D057566:Self Report